Plans for treatment plant to provide irrigation water for Axarquía town

The Nerja treatment plant will eventually provide much-needed irrigation water to local growers in the Axarquía as the area suffers the repercussions of an extremely dry summer.

Despite 60mm of rain falling last weekend, just 0.02 cubic hectometres was collected in the La Viñuela reservoir, which remains at historically low levels. The Junta de Andalucía now being forced to continue to look for alternatives for water supply and irrigation in the area.

After establishing the wastewater treatment plants of Vélez-Málaga, Rincón de la Victoria, Algarrobo, the two in Torrox and the one at Peñón del Cuervo, which will be able to provide up to 21 cubic hectometres a year in the coming months, the focus has now turned to the Nerja plant.

The Junta is working on plans to connect the Nerja water treatment plant with the two irrigation communities of the municipality, which until now only used wells and water from the Chíllar river.The regional government has included the necessary works in the third drought decree and is already working on drafting the technical plans. The plan will provide two cubic hectometres of treated water to local growers “if conventional resources fail, to let the wells and aquifers rest in the summer season”, according to the Junta’s delegate in Malaga province, Patricia Navarro.